Immigration Reform News: Border Priests Call On U.S. In Letter For Immigration Reform

By Manuel C, Crossmap On November 27, 2013

Catholic Bishops on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border are showing their displeasure with the current state of immigration reform by releasing a letter to their parishes and elected officials. This collaboration of priests hopes to change misconceptions about undocumented immigrants.

The letter, Family Beyond Borders, written by Bishop Daniel Flores of the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville and 12 other border bishops from Texas and Mexico. The letter states that the church must be conscious of how to help families that are facing separation because of deportation procedures.

"We kind of figure - as bishops on the border - we feel very particularly," Flores told the Brownsville Herald. "People tell us things they won't tell other people about what they are experiencing."

The letter includes stories of those who have been deported and affected by immigration laws.

People cannot sit and complain about how the family is falling apart in society if they tolerate a system of law that has as its goal the separation of families, Flores said.

Because of this, Flores said, legislators should not let this moment pass.

"This is a human reality that needs to be addressed in an orderly way by those responsible for governing and that it would be a failure of governance if this is not addressed in a timely and just way," Flores said.

San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, part of the collaboration of priests, said the immigration system is sad and broken, and the breakup of the immigrant family is an offense against God and human conscience, in an interview with Texas Public Radio News.

"It should no longer require an act of courage on the part of a legislator to apply the principals of moral ethics, true family values, decency, and justice," García-Siller said.

García-Siller said the immigration reform debate has gone from a discussion about national security to a partisan politics issue, blinding people from seeing the suffering of immigrants.